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New York luxury furniture purveyor ABC Carpet & Home plans to file for bankruptcy protection as soon as Thursday after struggling to keep up with costs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The luxury furniture retailer is set to receive a debtor-in-possession loan from 888 Capital Partners as part of its bankruptcy filing. The investment firm is one of several potential buyers for the company in bankruptcy. ABC Carpet & Home has been working with advisers from B. Riley Financial Inc. and Greenberg Traurig to seek new financing or a buyer after a planned private-equity sale fell through, Bloomberg previously reported. In a statement to Bloomberg, Chief Executive Officer Aaron Rose said the business would continue to operate as usual. “ABC carpet & home is in advanced discussions with a strategic investor who has provided funding for the company’s operations and is developing a long-term financial plan that will continue the company’s iconic legacy,” Rose said. “Business is operating as usual during this process.” The company’s popular restaurant business, including ABC Kitchen, wouldn’t be included in the bankruptcy.

A popular Louisville restaurant has filed for bankruptcy. Ramsi's Cafe on the World, which opened on Bardstown Road in 1994, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, WDRB.com reported. In July, Ramsi's Cafe on the World opened a second location in Norton Commons. The chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed on Wednesday in the U.S Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Kentucky, Louisville Division. The Highlands location was recently closed for over three weeks to remodel the kitchen and upgrade equipment.

GTT Communications Inc. said that it plans to file a pre-packaged bankruptcy after it closes the sale of its infrastructure division in the coming weeks, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The cloud-networking provider on Thursday said it plans to file for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company said that its foreign businesses and operations outside the U.S. won’t be part of the filing and are unlikely to be affected by the chapter 11 cases. GTT said that it has struck a restructuring support agreement with a majority of its secured and unsecured debtors and I Squared Capital. GTT is expecting to sell its infrastructure division to I Squared Capital, as it seeks to repay its secured debt. The sale and the transactions related to the restructuring support will reduce GTT’s debt by roughly $2.8 billion, the company said. GTT last year agreed to sell the infrastructure division for $2.15 billion. GTT said that its business is operating as usual both in the U.S. and globally, as it has access to enough liquidity to operate its businesses. With the support of lenders, the company said it will retain additional amounts from the sale proceeds to further strengthen its cash position. Vendors, employees and other parties will continue to be paid in the ordinary course of business, it added.

One set of partners in the ownership of Bishop's Lodge has filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The move by the property's majority owners came against the wishes of its managing member, Richard Holland. "We did not need to file for bankruptcy," Holland said yesterday. Holland and his partners own the property on the north side of Santa Fe, and Auberge Resorts Collection operates the resort. The filing on Monday seeks to restructure $78 million in debt incurred to create the ultra-luxury, 100-room resort that opened in July with rooms typically priced above $1,100 per night. The debtor is officially listed as BL Santa Fe LLC, the company Holland established when he acquired Bishop's Lodge in 2014 to upgrade the property to a luxury resort. Holland said the partners own a majority interest in BL Santa Fe and dispute Holland's claim that he remains managing member. Holland used similar words in May when a complaint was filed against BL Santa Fe LLC in First District Court asking to put the Bishop's Lodge property in foreclosure for nonpayment of a $43 million loan from Fortress Credit Co. LLC. Ten days later, the court issued a "notice of excusal."

Sequential Brands Group Inc., the New York-based company that owns and licenses consumer brands from Jessica Simpson fashions to Gaiam yoga wear and Joe’s Jeans, has filed for bankruptcy and will sell assets, saying that a big debt load and the COVID-19 pandemic made business difficult, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The publicly traded New York business sought chapter 11 protection Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with a $333 million offer for its active-division brands from brand manager Galaxy Universal LLC and a $38.2 million stalking-horse bid for the Joe’s Jeans brand from Centric Brands LLC, another apparel licensing company. Sequential lenders including KKR & Co. and Apollo Global Management Inc. may bid their debt claims for the remaining brands, court documents show. The company said yesterday that it enters bankruptcy with a restructuring agreement with its lenders and has lined up $150 million in financing, of which $141 million will be available immediately pending court approval, to stay afloat through the chapter 11 process. Sequential’s two biggest shareholders are Martha Stewart and private-equity firm Tengram Capital Partners, which own 10.9% and 11.5%, respectively. Sequential has been in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since last year, when the regulator sued the company, alleging shortcomings in its accounting. In February, Sequential filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, which remains pending. In early August, the SEC settled charges against Sequential’s former CFO, Gary Klein. Revenues started declining in 2019 and continued declining during the pandemic, according to a court filing by current CFO Lorraine DiSanto. The impact of COVID-19 also caused supply-chain disruptions for retail licensees, she said in a court filing.

Oilfield services provider Basic Energy Services is warning employees that nearly 500 jobs could be eliminated in Texas, according to a filing with the state's workforce commission, as the company works through chapter 11 restructuring that includes asset sales, Reuters reported. The job cuts are focused throughout Texas, with 135 positions eliminated in Howard County in West Texas and 120 in Tarrant County, where its headquarters are located, according to the filing. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company this month filed for bankruptcy and said it had entered into asset purchase agreements with rivals Axis Energy Services Holding Inc., Berry Corp. and Select Energy Services Inc. If those asset sales are not completed, or if the acquiring company does not offer current Basic employees jobs following the close of the sales, the positions will be eliminated, Basic said in the filing. In a statement earlier this month, CEO Keith Schilling noted that the company faced "extraordinary challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic." He added, in the earlier statement: “We believe the asset purchase agreements will enable us to maximize the value of our businesses and create the best path forward for our customers, partners, employees and the communities we serve.”

Tix Corp. filed for bankruptcy after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Las Vegas discount ticket seller to close its Tix4Tonight-branded booths on the Strip and its online ticket-sales operations for more than a year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company filed yesterday for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas, saying that it would sell substantially all its assets. Chief Executive Mitch Francis has expressed an interest in buying the company out of bankruptcy, according to court papers filed by Kimberly Simon, Tix’s chief operating officer. Founded in 1993, the company sells tickets to shows, tours and attractions out of three booths operating on the Las Vegas Strip, according to court filings. The company said it was forced to close its ticket booths in March 2020, when the pandemic shut down all restaurants, bars, hotels and entertainment venues in the city, and lay off its employees. Even after reopening the booths in June 2021, Tix continued to struggle financially, in part because as shows and tours resumed, high demand meant there were fewer tickets available for discounters, Simon’s filing said. Tix said that it expects normal operations to continue without affecting customers.

Basic Energy Services Inc. is once again seeking voluntary bankruptcy protection and plans to sell off a substantial portion of its Lower 48 assets, Natural Gas Intel reported. Hit by the oil price rout in 2015 and 2016, the Fort Worth, TX-based oilfield services operator successfully emerged from voluntary bankruptcy five years ago. After COVID-19 bashed energy demand last year, Basic shrank its Lower 48 business to three segments from five. The latest restructuring would give Basic the ability to sell assets in separate transactions to Axis Energy Services Holding LLC, Berry Corp. and Select Energy Services Inc. Basic filed for chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston (No. 21-90006).

Trucking, logistics and airfreight companies are collectively owed hundreds of thousands of dollars after a Texas freight forwarder filed for chapter 11 protection last this week, FreightWaves reported. Atlantic Worldwide Shipping LLC of Houston filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday. In its filing, the freight forwarder lists its assets as between $100,000 and $500,000 and its liabilities as between $1 million and $10 million. The company states that it has up to 49 creditors and maintains that funds will be available for distribution to unsecured creditors. The freight forwarder’s list of secured creditors includes North Mill Credit Trust of Mill Valley, California, owed nearly $87,000 for a 2020 Freightliner and the U.S. Small Business Administration, headquartered in Washington, D.C., owed $149,000. Among Atlantic Worldwide Shipping’s top nonpriority unsecured creditors are: Al Shamali International Freight Services LLC of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, owed more than $1.4 million; logistics payment platform PayCargo LLC of Miami, owed over $745,000; and CaroTrans International of Houston, owed more than $18,000. It also owes Landstar Systems Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, nearly $8,000. According to Atlantic Worldwide Shipping’s financials, its gross revenues from Jan. 1 until its bankruptcy filing date are over $450,000. Its petition states the company made nearly $2.1 million in 2020 and around $2.2 million in 2019.